Does your compliance need a check-up?
Compliance with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act is mandatory for organizations in the health care industry. These regulations are in place to protect the personal information of patients and to enable patients’ access to their health information. Complying with these regulations can be daunting for organizations that lack the staff and appropriate knowledge to manage the required compliance demands and address data security concerns.
HIPAA/HITECH OVERVIEW
- HIPAA was signed into law in 1996, and is primarily concerned with the portability of health insurance and protecting the rights of workers to maintain health insurance between jobs. It also contains the rules, regulations and guidelines for protecting and governing the use and distribution of medical or patient data, and gives patients and health plan members the right to obtain copies of their protected health information (PHI). In a nutshell, the Act helps ensure the portability, accessibility, privacy and confidentiality of protected health care data.
- HITECH was enacted in 2009, and increased patients’ rights to include the option of being provided with copies of health and medical records in electronic form, if the covered entity maintains health and medical records in electronic form and the information was readily producible in that format. Financial incentives were provided to healthcare providers to encourage electronic records up until 2015, and then switched to penalties for those who do not. HITECH also prohibited the sale of PHI except in limited circumstances and closed the marketing loophole, prohibiting providers from receiving compensation in return for making treatment recommendations.
How Think Tech Advisors can help
We use our expertise to identify any security gaps, and ensure your organization achieves and stays in compliance. Our consultants have extensive experience in assessing organizational processes to ensure sufficient controls are in place to maintain compliance. Our services include:
- Readiness review: We help determine your organization’s level of readiness to comply with the regulations, including documentation review and interviewing key personnel.
- Current compliance assessment: This assessment includes review and analysis of your policies, procedures and documentation, interviews with staff, and testing existing processes and controls.
- Risk assessment: This assessment involves comparing your potential risks and vulnerabilities to the confidentiality, integrity, and accessibility of protected health information.
- Policies and procedures update: Based on the results of our reviews and assessments, we help add to or update your policies and procedures, and can also assist in developing and implementing them.
- Self-assessment training: Using industry best practices and customized to individual experience levels, we train your staff to conduct a HIPAA/HITECH compliance self-assessment.
